Is Air Force Conduct Unbecoming Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 133, 2016–2025
Article 133, conduct unbecoming an officer, was charged in 37 Air Force courts-martial from 2016 to 2025. It was part of 2% of convictions in 2016–2018 and 2% in 2023–2025. Of the cases with a plea on record, 50% were contested, compared with 48% Air Force-wide.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Offense › Article 133 › Air Force
Short answer: Article 133, conduct unbecoming an officer, was charged in 37 Air Force courts-martial from 2016 to 2025. It was part of 2% of convictions in 2016–2018 and 2% in 2023–2025. Of the cases with a plea on record, 50% were contested, compared with 48% Air Force-wide. The median confinement was 3 months, compared with 4 months across all Air Force cases.
An Offense Charged Only Against Officers
Article 133 covers conduct unbecoming an officer. All 37 accused in these cases were officers. None were junior enlisted members or NCOs. This group is therefore much more senior than all Air Force cases.
That affects the other figures. For officers, the punitive separation a court-martial can adjudge is a dismissal. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge for enlisted members.
Is the Trend Up or Down?
The records show 37 cases tried between March 2016 and December 2025. By year: 2016: 6, 2017: 2, 2018: 5, 2019: 6, 2020: 4, 2021: 1, 2022: 1, 2023: 3, 2024: 3, and 2025: 6. That is 1% of all Air Force courts-martial in those years (2,795 cases).
As a share of convictions, the figure changed little. In 2016–2018, Article 133 was part of 12 of 786 Air Force convictions with offenses listed (2%). In 2023–2025, it was part of 11 of 494 (2%). Shares rather than counts keep years with more or fewer total cases comparable. There was 1 case a year in 2021 and 2022, and 6 in 2025. With numbers this small, a few cases determine the yearly pattern.
| Year | Convictions incl. Art. 133 | All convictions with offenses listed | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 6 | 205 | 3% |
| 2017 | 1 | 294 | 0% |
| 2018 | 5 | 287 | 2% |
| 2019 | 6 | 271 | 2% |
| 2020 | 3 | 186 | 2% |
| 2021 | 1 | 202 | 0% |
| 2022 | 1 | 208 | 0% |
| 2023 | 2 | 152 | 1% |
| 2024 | 3 | 173 | 2% |
| 2025 | 6 | 169 | 4% |
Usually Charged With Other Offenses
Article 133 was the only charge in just 2 of 37 cases. In the other cases, it was charged with other offenses. Article 134, the general article, appeared with it in 17 cases. Drug charges under Article 112a appeared in 8, orders violations under Article 92 in 6, sexual assault under Article 120 in 5, and assault under Article 128 in 5.
The sentence in a case charging Article 133 therefore usually covers several offenses. The records do not divide a sentence by charge.
Contested at About the Air Force Rate
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of the 16 records that list a plea, 8 were guilty pleas and 8 were contested, a contested share of 50%. That is about the same as the 48% across the Air Force in those years.
Plea data is limited here. Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely list a guilty plea, so only 16 of the 37 records show one.
Sentences Were Often Short, Sometimes None
Of 37 convictions, 25 included confinement. The median sentence was 3 months, about the same as the 4 months for all Air Force cases. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 1.3 years or longer. These are adjudged sentences, as announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and they cover every charge in the case.
No confinement was more common here than across the Air Force: 32% of convictions, compared with 15%. Sentences longer than one year were less common: 7 of 37 convictions (19%), compared with 23%. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement. A special court-martial is capped at one year.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the whole Air Force docket |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 12 | 32% | 15% |
| Under 6 months | 16 | 43% | 48% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 2 | 5% | 15% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 6 | 16% | 16% |
| 5 years or more | 1 | 3% | 7% |
Officer Panels and Military Judges
The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. A military judge alone decided 20 of the 37 cases (54%). Members heard 17, and all of those panels were made up of officers.
Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, so these figures mostly follow how many cases were contested.
Installations With the Most Cases
JB Andrews, Maryland had 3 cases. Aviano AB, Italy; Nellis AFB, Nevada; Offutt AFB, Nebraska; and Hurlburt Field, Florida had 2 each. Together these five account for 30% of the 37 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a count alone says little about any base.
Law Changes in These Years
The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. Cases involving offenses from before 2019 kept the old rules.
Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel rather than commanders decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. For offenses after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new parameters. Both changes depend on offense dates, which the records lack.
What the Records Do Not Show
The records show charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not show the evidence, the plea terms, or conduct handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative action. Air Force records rarely list charges in full acquittals and never report plea agreements. For that reason, this page does not report how often Article 133 charges ended in acquittal.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Air Force courts-martial tried 2016–2025 that charged Article 133 (37 cases). The trend line uses convictions whose records list the offenses found, by trial year.
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
- Article 133 (Conduct Unbecoming an Officer): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Offense (hub)
- Army Article 133 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025 (another service)
- Navy-Marine Corps Article 133 Cases by the Numbers, 2017–2025 (another service)
- Air Force Article 109 Cases by the Numbers, 2016–2025
- Air Force Article 113 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025
- Air Force Article 115 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025
- How Much Confinement for an Article 133 Conviction in the Air Force?
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.